1. Since the last Board meeting on 23rd September, our approval committee has met on 7 October to consider applications requiring approval of consultancy contracts over £20,000 and all external recruitment.

2. The cases considered are listed below:

| Meeting date | Ref: No. & directorate | Summary of application | Consultancy/ recruit | Committee Decision | |--------------|------------------------|------------------------|----------------------|--------------------| | 7 October 2010 | 37 - RSD | RRV runaway – engagement of HSL for expert work £28,200 (including £14,300 previously approved by DCS) | Consultancy | Approved | | 7 October 2010 | 40 - RPP | Relative infrastructure managers’ efficiency – consideration of the gap between Network Rail and other European comparators £34,250 | Consultancy | Approved * | | 7 October 2010 | 41 - EA | Engagement of technical Web specialist £33,860 | Recruitment | Approved | | 7 October 2010 | 43 - CS | Internal audit services £75,000 for two years | Internal audit | Approved | | 7 October 2010 | 44 - RME | Explaining Network Rail’s inefficiency gap: assessing macroeconomic and structural factors £80,000 | Consultancy | Approved * | | 7 October 2010 | 45 - RME | Real unit operating expenditure and frontier shift benchmarking of Network Rail £50,000 | Consultancy | Approved * | | 7 October 2010 | 46 - CS | Extension to temporary Grade E post to 25 February 2011 | Recruitment | Approved | | Date | Code | Description | Type | Status | |--------------|------|--------------------------------------------------|----------|---------| | 7 October 2010 | 47 - RME | External recruitment of economist Grade E, London | Recruitment | Approved |

Further details of any of the above applications and decisions are available from Brian Warrener

3. The committee were also provided with details of any applications below £20,000 which are subject to approval by corporate services. There has been one application approved totalling £587.